November 2008

This record crept up on me and punched me in the back of my knees. Talk about a great summer record that I can’t stop listening to as winter approaches. The band comes from Alabama and I had absolutely no idea these songs could come from that state. It’s like the guys in Thomas Function found a box full of long lost hit songs from the 1960’s, and made a covers record in their garage.

The album belts out catchy tune one after another. Chock full of wind-you-up drum beats and a bright bouncy organ and that voice… kind of punky but there is that Alabama twang thrown in there sometimes. The records skips across a list of genres without consciously trying to cram too much into it.

“Conspiracy of Praise” has me shouting out ‘to the bus stop bus stop bus stop’ repeatedly everytime even though those aren’t really the lyrics. “2012 Blues” sounds like a lost cut from Let it Bleed. “Swimming Through a Sea of Broken Glass” has the best call and response chorus. Nary a bad apple in the bunch. Dig in to Celebration.

In my youth I once bragged that I was the “Tallest Tree-Planter in BC”. Two things:

This was definitely not true yet very few people disputed my claim.

I can only barely segue this fact into the rest of this post.

The Tallest Man on Earth is not to be confused with the Tallest Tree-Planter in BC. He is a man from Sweden who plays guitar and sings songs. His driver’s license has him as Kristian Matsson and from a picture i found on the internet he has a moustache. Usually the songs have more than one guitar on them, but I imagine he probably played both of them; although not at the same time I am sure. When he sings there is something familiar about it. It sounds like you have heard it before.

There is no getting around the fact that his voice has that same rasp as Mr. Dylan. Compound that with the folk guitar instrumentation and you are headed for an unavoidable collision that ends in Dylan comparisons. Now that that is on the table you can move on. After listening to the Tallest Man on Earth you will understand that is not just derivitave Dylan. Wearing his influences on his sleeve, way up there on the tallest shoulder on earth, Kristian Matsson delivers one of the best albums of 2008.

Highlights include ‘The Gardener’, with its simple love story lyrics gives insight into his nom de tune in the line “So I can stay the tallest man in your eyes, babe”. It’s rowdily-strummed guitar comes to a peak 2:37-2:47 to create my favourite 10 seconds of music of the year.

Album closer “The Wind” rounds out the record. Sort through a series of animal themed verses including: “Like a fox on the run from the well-informed son/With the bearin’s for cannonball love/Just like nobody said where that eagle was fed” to find a picture perfect folk song that would fit into your most emotional Wes Anderson film father-son moment.

I sit in front of two computer screens (3 if i have the laptop on) all day long. I’m not complaining. I kind of even like it but eventually even I can tire of staring at excel tables and digital maps. That is why I have just been loving this page I found recently.

Broadcasting 24 hrs a day from parts unknown a box full of 6 Shiba Inu puppies. All of them are same colour and look identical except for their different coloured collars. Check it

Autumn (Purple collar)

Ayumi (Yellow collar)

Amaya (Red collar)

Aki (Green collar)

Akoni (Black collar)

Ando (Blue collar)

From what I have seen so far Aki likes to bite everyone and walk on them while they sleep and Autumn is the laziest. I am guessing this web cam will be up for a limited time only because, at the time of writing, these puppies are already 4 weeks old. I am not sure how old breeders keep puppies before handing them out to their new owners but my guess is that this we’ll only be able to watch this 6 headed pile of unbearable adorability for another few weeks.

No matter how shitty your day is or how much you hate your job, spending 5 minutes of your time watching puppies crawl all over each other is bound to improve your quality of life.

Enjoy.

Help. Where am I. What is going on here. Seriously.

A collection of things that make you go hmmm, including but not limited to C + C Music Factory songs, Kyrgyzstani mutton recipes and pictures of abandoned toothpick factories. If you want to contact us you can reach us at tacoguthrie at gmail dot com.